QUEENSTOWN, New Zealand: In the mountainous regions of New Zealand's South Island, diminutive goblins are making mischief.

The olive-coloured mountain parrot, known as the kea because of its screeching cry, often leaves unwary tourists with unpleasant memories.

The birds have a particular predilection for pecking out the rubber seals of wing mirrors and car windows.

"Many visitors don't like the keas at all," said ranger Alan Whittaker, of the Fox Glacier nature reserve. One look at the car park reveals what he means: One of the birds is having a go at the mirror of a parked car with its curved beak.

"If we don't shoo him away, the wing-mirror pane will soon be lying on the ground by the front wheel," said Whittaker, as he scares the bird away for the time being.

The keas are wreaking havoc on the car parks near the Fox Glacier and the Franz Josef Glacier, 25 kilometres away.

The birds seem to be completely fearless.

"They know we can't do anything to them because they're an endangered species," said Whittaker's colleague Tony Imeson. The bird, whose ornithological name is Nestor nobilis, only inhabits the West Coast of the South Island in the wild.

The picnic areas for car drivers are infested with veritable mobs of the parrots. They climb into the rubbish bins, march about foraging under the benches, or land on the roofs of parked cars.

"Feeding the birds is expressly forbidden," Imeson explained. "But the keas know how to beg in a really charming manner, and so they generally are given something."

Turn your back even for a moment and the feathered miscreants will be on the rampage, foraging for their favourite treats. Even a closed rucksack offers no protection from their pilfering.

It seems that the keas' reputation for being particularly destructive is justified. For decades, they were mercilessly hunted by marksmen for that reason. Farmers of European origin consider the mountain parrots the enemies of their herds, believing them to attack the sheep and consume their flesh.

Yet, according to ornithologists, the keas are not predators. Imeson is nevertheless wary of them: "It's possible that the kea might feast on sheep carrion. Or in isolated cases, the animals might pester and attack a sheep directly, plucking out its wool and then tearing lumps of flesh from its back."

New Zealand's conservationists are seeking to preserve the cheeky keas from extinction. They at least can put up with the shenanigans of these feathered goblins.

(China Daily 12/08/2005 page13)